Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Greater New Orleans

Change Region

comments

Armory ghost lingers at Jackson Barracks

washington-artillery-armory-1998.jpg

The shadow of a military policeman is projected on the wall of the Washington Artillery armory at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans. Legend has it that the spirit of Henry Brunig occupies the building. Brunig, a caretaker of polo horses, killed himself in 1937 a day after his 21 horses were put to sleep.
(Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

For years, 1st Sgt. Terry Donelon of the 141st Battalion, Washington Artillery, and others have sometimes heard odd sounds while working nights in the Louisiana National Guard armory at Jackson Barracks, which faces St. Claude Avenue at the Orleans-St. Bernard parish line. "I swear I would hear doors slamming, toilets flushing. You would hear water running," said Donelon, who has spent 16 years in the National Guard at Jackson Barracks.

"There are other people who have stayed late and have said the same thing," Donelon said. "People would swear they heard people walking" after hours, when they knew they were alone. "We've always made a joke of it. We've said this building is haunted," Donelon said. Indeed, according to legend, it might be.

Story by

Steve Cannizaro

Staff writer

Lore has it that the armory is occupied by the spirit of 1st Sgt. Henry Brunig, who was 38 in June 1937 when he killed himself at the barracks. Built in 1970, the armory stands on ground that in the 1930s was a field where polo matches were played.

Brunig's tale reads like a script from a sad movie.

He was a caretaker and supply sergeant for the Washington Artillery, assisting with the care of horses that pulled artillery pieces before the unit was fully motorized. But in June 1937, veterinarians pronounced 21 horses of the Washington Artillery too old and unfit for military duty and the animals were shot. The remaining horses were moved to other units.

The next day, Bruing shot himself. His body was found in a barracks warehouse. pronounced 21 horses of the Washington Artillery too old and unfit for military duty and the animals were shot. The remaining horses were moved to other units.

Some newspaper accounts of Brunig's death linked his suicide to the slaughter of the horses, saying their deaths had preyed on his mind. Other accounts discounted any connection, saying Brunig was troubled over personal matters.

He was buried with full military honors.

"Nobody has ever known whether he killed himself over the horses," said retired National Guard official Edward Benezech of St. Bernard Parish, whose father was one of Brunig's superior officers. Benezech, who attended Brunig's funeral as a teenager,said he remembers Brunig "had some other problems," including family discord.

Although the barracks, which date back to 1835, has several legends about the spirits of long-dead soldiers moving about at night, the Brunig story is one of the more enduring.

Benezech said Brunig's death was a case in which people "put up rumors, then it becomes legend."

But for those who hear bumps in the night at the barracks there is a silver lining: The haunting tales are "friendly stories. No one has ever been hurt by the ghosts," a National Guard employee said.

Story originally published Oct. 31, 1998

Read the account of Sgt. Henry Brunig's funeral from The Times-Picayune, July 4, 1937